How to Remember What You Read: A Summarization
How to better remember and personally realize the content you read.
The following is my summarization of the post by Shane Parrish of Farnam Street blog of the same name. No ideas are my own and I fully recommend reading the original article for a better understanding.
What It’s About
How to better remember and personally realize the content you read.
Why I Read It
I am currently spending more time learning. Often, I am faced with the question of how to choose what content to read, watch, or listen to. And then how to maintain that information. Therefore I figured it’s worthwhile to invest some time learning how to learn. I have been familiar with Farnam Street for a while, and greatly appreciate their approach to learning through mental models.
Who Wrote It
Shane Parrish of Farnam Street began blogging about mental models while working as a cybersecurity expert, consequently gaining popularity among wall street executives, and ultimately leaving his job to focus on Farnam Street full time. Now he has several books, holds seminars, is an active investor, hosts a podcast, and continues to write on subjects of mental models, learning deeply, and rigorous self-betterment. His approach to asking and answering questions is highly constructive and efficient.
My Key Takeaways
I learned how to put processes in place that will greatly improve my understandings of a reading. It mostly comes down to engaging with a book actively rather than being a passive reader. This includes asking questions against mental models, keeping notes, and performing chapter summaries. It is in no way a hack or without effort. But the suggested methods are straightforward enough for anyone to easily follow.
Choose the books you read intentionally.
Have a plan to record, reflect, and put learnings into action.
Understand the context surrounding the book.
Book summaries should only be used for getting an idea of a book and not in lieu of reading the book in its entirety (the same is true with this post!). You learn from following the author’s train of thought.
Be an active reader: it builds better mental models, helps you retain more, and increases your reading speed.
Take notes throughout.
Don't finish every book. If it’s bad or boring stop. Follow the 50-page rule.
Test your learning's against your mental models.
Upon completion summarize the book for a 12-year-old.
Full Summary
Pre Reading
1. When choosing the book ask
Does this book stand the test of time?
Does this book pique my interest?
Is this book relevant to my current situation? *(Match the book your reading to your environment, both physically and mentally. Try and find a book that was written within a similar environment, and dealing with challenges you currently face. This will help you both relate and retain the knowledge.)*
Why do I want to read this book? *(What are you reading this book for? Entertainment? To understand something or someone you don’t know? To get better at your job? To improve your health? To learn a skill? To help build a business?)*
2. To better understand the context ask
Why did the author write this?
What is the author’s background?
What else has the author written?
Where was this book written?
What was the political, economic, and cultural situation at the time of writing?
Did any important events — a war, an economic depression, a change of leadership, the emergence of new technology — happen during the writing of the book?
While-Reading
1. Perform the following actions
Skim the content. Such as the description, table of contents, forward, etc, to get a better idea of the subject matter.
Take notes. This can be whichever process works for you but ideally should include writing dead simple chapter summaries at the completion of each chapter. This will both help synthesize the content, as well as provide a quick summary for when you want to quickly review the read content.
Embrace marginalia. Write down tangential thoughts, draw parallels, underline passages. Engage in a dialogue with the author. Books can and should be greater than a consumable, they are a discussion of ideas.
Build a vivid mental image. If it’s important, pause to visualize it.
Keep your mental models in mind. It’s best to consistently check your conclusions and takeaways against your mental models.
Stop when bored. Don't waste your time reading a bad book, or one that merely doesn't catch your interest. A good rule of thumb is to check in with yourself 50 pages in.
Post Reading
1. Check your mental models
Confirmation bias: Which part of this book am I ignoring? Does this book confirm my initial opinions?
Bayesian updating: What opinions should I change in light of this new knowledge? How can I update my worldview?
Pareto principle: Which part of this book is most important? If I had to cut out 99% of the book, what’s the 1% I'd leave?
Leverage: How can I use the knowledge from this book to gain a disproportionate advantage? How can I leverage this new knowledge in a tangible way?
Incentives: What are the motivations of the author, and characters? What do they seek? What is their purpose?
Availability bias: How has the knowledge I have recently acquired influenced my perception of this book? Am I assigning undue importance to parts of this book because it sticks out as memorable?
Social Proof: How has public reception and commentary on this book affected my perception?
Narrative instinct: Did the author distort real events to create a cohesive narrative? Real-life doesn't usually follow the structure of an elegant novel so it’s almost always somewhat true. But to what degree?
Survivorship bias: Does this non-fiction book account for base rates or does the author misrepresent reality? (ex. 'xyz' worked for the author and is therefore presented as the "rule" rather than the exception)
Utility: Does this book offer advice with a practical application? At what point does diminishing returns set in?
2. Practice The Feynman Technique
Upon completing the book, take some time to write down a summary as if you had to teach the book to a class of 12-year-olds. For any gaps in your understanding take note and return to the book for clarification.
3. Keep Notes Searchable
By keeping your notes searchable you can build a database of knowledge that you can refer back to at any time. (I use Obsidian as my primary note-taking tool which helps me build an interconnected Digital Garden1 of thoughts and ideas. This allows me to continually access, and trace my own knowledge.)
4. Reread
The best way to reinforce what you've learned is to reread the book.
Also Read:
https://fs.blog/how-to-read-a-book/
https://fs.blog/2013/06/the-art-of-reading-how-to-be-a-demanding-reader/
“A [digital] garden is a collection of evolving ideas that aren't strictly organized by their publication date. They're inherently exploratory – notes are linked through contextual associations. They aren't refined or complete - notes are published as half-finished thoughts that will grow and evolve over time. They're less rigid, less performative, and less perfect than the personal websites we're used to seeing.” — https://maggieappleton.com/garden-history